Catch the Moon
by Wacky Shiz
Summary: Grace Noel Gardner grew up in Arkansas, but after an unexpected tragedy in her family, she meets a group of hoods, that could be just the thing she needs...
1. Default Chapter

**Chapter uno! R&R

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Blood trickled down my arm from my shoulder. It dripped slowly off of my finger tips and onto the white rubber toes of my shoes as I stumbled down the road; hoping to find somebody, anybody to help me. No cars could be seen, coming or going on the long dirt road. I tripped over a rock in the path, but caught myself before I fell down the hill. As I steadied myself I noticed headlights approaching slowly.

They would help me, they just had to.

I clambered clumsily into the middle of the road, and as the cars headlights showed the driver my condition, it came screeching to a halt. The man inside, the driver, looked to be somewhere in his forties. He had worry lines crossing his brow,

_Probably has kids._ I thought. He looked friendly enough, but his eyes were filled with fear at my bloody form. He had a wife I noticed, but she was already out of the car stepping cautiously towards me as if she was scared.

"Honey?" She asked with a sweet voice and a pretty smile. She would help me. "Honey what happened to you?"

I couldn't answer that. I really wasn't sure; things had happened so fast…nobody was supposed to get hurt.

Everything came rushing back so fast it almost gave me a headache. Andrew, my older brother of twenty one years, falling to the ground dead; shot down by our…my brother. Mama screaming, but being silenced as another shot rang out in the otherwise silent night. Daddy had tried to stop him, to yank the gun from his hand, but he was silenced as well. Things were getting out of hand, I couldn't sit by and watch silently anymore; I had to get out.

I rose quietly, slowly, hoping he hadn't seen me. Tommy and Nora were hiding behind the couch, too scared and too young to understand what was happening.

Their quiet terrified sobs almost broke my heart as I picked them up gingerly, still trying to avoid the fiery gaze of my once beloved twin brother.

"Sissy where's Mommy!" Nora had screamed and I silently cursed her as I heard the gun being cocked. My breath caught in my throat when the shot went off. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion; I thought I was going to die. I looked down into the terrified faces of my younger siblings, willing them to get out before our brother turned on them too.

I held my breath, just waiting for the pain to come; for my body to go limp and fall to the floor. Nothing happened. I expected to be dead by then, but when I looked at Tommy; I figured out why I wasn't. His tiny little three year old chest was blossoming with crimson liquid; I was later horrified to discover it was blood.

_This shouldn't be happening!_ I thought fleetingly as another bang sounded from the gun, luckily he had aimed too high and it bounced off of the ceiling.

I tried to open the door; to escape and save at least me and Nora, but it proved impossible. My arms were full. I couldn't let go of Tommy though. I just couldn't leave him there. He had a glazed look in his eyes, almost like he was blind, and as much as I didn't want to think about it, my baby brother was dead.

I somehow managed to pry open the door and stick my foot out before one final shot sounded.

Pain raced through my shoulder; I could feel the bullet pass through my bone and exit out the other side. I screamed in pain and stumbled out the door, bleeding down the hallway as I tried to escape. I heard my brother cursing at me as he pursued, but I wasn't going to slow down. I had to get away; I didn't want to die.

I don't know how long I ran, bleeding with my baby brother and sister in my arms; but it was too long. I didn't stop until I saw the "Welcome to Oklahoma sign," and I was too exhausted to go on. My siblings were like lead blocks strapped to my arms, but I couldn't drop them. Not here, not ever.

Nora had been quiet the entire time, I hadn't thought anything of it before, but when I looked at her once rosy cheeks, I realized why. There was a bullet hole in her forehead.

_It's the same one that got me!_ I remember thinking before collapsing on the ground from blood loss and grief. My entire family, had been wiped out in a matter of minutes…hours? I really didn't know. My head swam with fuzzy images, a car passing slowly, but not noticing me, a bird landing on the sign…

"Honey come here." The woman's voice woke me from my trance and she wrapped a dainty arm around my shoulder, causing me to cry out in pain. "Shhh…" she cooed as she ushered me towards the back seat of the car. "Just relax, we're going to take you to a hospital, you're okay now. You're safe." I suddenly realized Nora and Tommy were still behind me, laying somewhere on the side of the road.

"No!" I screamed and tried to wriggle free of her arm. "No I have to go back!" She was stronger than she looked, and she held tight to my un-injured arm.

"Easy baby, let's go to the hospital. We can call your parents from there." At the mention of my parents, every limb on my body went stiff. My heart stopped beating and I felt like I couldn't breathe. The woman must've noticed, but she didn't say anything, just pulled gently on my arm until I climbed into the back seat with her.

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**Thanks for READING! lol R&R**


	2. Blackout

**CHAPTER 2...enough said...maybe. R&R**

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"Tommy? Nora?" I mumbled as the car zipped down the road towards what I could only assume was the hospital.

"Shhh…" the woman repeated for the umpteenth time that night.

The car ride had taken longer than I had expected, but then, I guess when I was running, there weren't many buildings that I passed. All I saw was a small convenience store, and an abandoned gas station.

_We must have been in the country._ I thought as another fit of pain gripped my shoulder. It throbbed, and gushed blood despite the woman's sweater that had been pressed onto the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. She rocked me back and forth as my jaw clenched and I grabbed her hand roughly. She let me squeeze it as tight as I needed until the wave passed; then started stroking my hair in an attempt to calm me down.

"Darrel I'm worried, there's an awful lot of blood." The woman said to her husband with a shaky voice. He turned around briefly to look at the blood soaked sweater; then said trying to hide his worry,

"Just talk and try to calm her down Elaine. God knows you're good at talking."

"What do I talk about?" Elaine asked with a hint of annoyance in her voice, the man let out a nervous laugh.

"Funny, you've never had trouble with that before." Elaine grabbed my hand.

"Keep your eyes on the road Darrel." Her words were harsh, but I could tell she was kidding; they had obviously been together a long time. "How old are you sweetheart?" This time the question was directed towards me and her voice had softened again.

_How old am I…How old am I?_ It was hard to think with the thumping in my head but I finally managed to answer her.

"Sixteen." She pulled my head onto her shoulder and hugged me close to her so that I would relax. Images of my family falling to the ground bleeding and dead filled my head, no matter how hard I tried to fight them away; and no matter how hard she hugged, I was never going to be able to relax.

"We have a son, Sodapop, he's about your age."

_Did she just say Sodapop? Did she just say her sons name was Sodapop? _I thought and furrowed my brow to see if I had heard her correctly. "Our two other boys, Ponyboy and Darrel; Well Pony's younger than you, he's thirteen, and Darry's nineteen. Named after his father and just as handsome." The woman beamed at the mention of her sons, but I hardly noticed. I was still trying to figure out why I had heard _Sodapop_ and _Ponyboy_ instead of her sons real names.

_I must be delusional. _I thought as yet another fit of pain wracked my body. I took a large shaky breath and reached for Elaine's hand. This fit was worse than any of the ones that night, and every time I inhaled, my body shook.

"Darrel hurry up. She's getting worse." The car lurched forward almost on command and we entered the city at last. Buildings flashed by, some nice, some not so nice. We passed a neighborhood with large, well groomed houses, with beautiful lawns and perfectly pruned hedges. Not two minutes later we passed a neighborhood slightly resembling the one I lived in, with small, run down houses. Kids ran in the streets, and threw garbage at each other.

_Yes, definitely like my neighborhood._ I somehow managed to say in my head over the constant throbbing.

Tires screeched behind us and a rusty car zoomed past us as we were about to turn into the main part of town.

"Two-Bit Matthews!" Darrel screamed at the driver who stuck his arm out of the window to wave behind him. Elaine caught the confused look on my face and whispered,

"Our sons friend." I nodded slowly in understanding, trying to wait out the pain.

It hadn't changed. Before, they it come in short bursts and then it would go away, but this was worse. It throbbed harder, and with every heart beat I could feel myself getting weaker. In a fuzzy moment of lapsed judgment I was almost jealous of my family. They had died quick, hadn't felt anything; I was suffering. I pushed the thought out of my head with the last ounce of energy I had. I couldn't think about my family, that pain was worse than my shoulder.

More tires screeched as my vision started to blur.

"DARREL LOOK OUT!" I heart Elaine scream before everything went black.

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**If you haven't figured out by now what happened, your pretty thick...lol R&R**


	3. Thanks for the Memories

**This may not seem necessary at first, but it is. trust me. It might be sad...R&R plz**

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"_Daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy!" Nora screamed and rushed to jump into our fathers arms as he walked in the door from a day at work. He smiled his bright contagious smile and spun her in the air like a rag doll._

"_Nora Nora Nora Nora Nora!" He screamed back and pulled her into a tight hug. She giggled as Tommy came running out of the bathroom, butt naked and soaking wet with shampoo still in his hair._

"_DADDY!" He shouted excitedly and ran towards him as well, dripping water onto the carpet. _

"_Woah there tiger, bath time first." Our dad laughed and re-directed the pouting boy back into the bathroom with one arm._

_My mother sat on her knees beside the bath tub, laughing at the innocence of her son._

"_He's a slippery one that Tommy." She picked up his tiny body and set him back down into the sudsy water._

"_Slippery slippery slippery slippery slippery…" Tommy mumbled as Mom started washing his hair again. My father stepped into the bathroom and pecked her on the lips quickly before setting his briefcase down on his armchair and dropping Nora onto the couch._

"_How was school Graceland?" He asked using his pet name for me. _

"_It was fine Daddy." I smiled as he kissed my cheek, then turned back to my trigonometry homework._

"_Grace! Bring Nora in here it's her turn for a bath!" Mama screamed from the bathroom, shortly followed by a fit of excited giggles from Tommy. He hated bath time, and if it was Nora's turn, that meant he was done._

"_Yes Mama! Come on baby girl lets go." I grabbed her chubby little hand, and she skipped beside me all the way there._

"_Okay mommy I'm ready." She declared and pulled her pants off all by herself. She was very proud of the fact that she could now undress herself without the help of mom; Mama wasn't so proud of the fact that she did it whenever she wanted. Just the week before Nora had announced that she was too hot, and pulled off her shirt, skirt and diaper. She managed to parade around the canned food isle for a few minutes because we were all laughing to hard to stop her._

"_Honey will you take Tommy in and get him changed?" My mom asked and lifted him out of the tub. She helped Nora remove her shirt before dropping her into the water and raising an eyebrow towards me._

"_Yes Mamma." I said and wrapped a towel around his tiny shoulders. _

"_Hi Grathe!" He exclaimed happily with is adorable lisp. He couldn't say my name correctly, but it didn't bother me. It did bother me that Nora called me 'Grathe' too, and she didn't have a lisp._

"_Hiya Tiny Tommy!" I laughed in my big sister voice and ushered him down the hall towards his and Nora's shared room._

_My father had turned on the radio and was humming to an Elvis song as he peeled potatoes in the kitchen._

"_Your brother should be home any minute." I hear him say before I disappeared into the room._

"_Airpwane airpwane!" Tommy exclaimed and threw his arms into the air happily. I laughed and poked him in the stomach reducing him to another fit of giggles._

"_After Andrew gets home and you get some clothes on baby." I promised and lifted him onto his changing table. "What do you wanna hear?" I asked him and he put his tiny finger to his mouth as if in deep concentration. _

_Tommy wouldn't let you change his diaper, or put clothes on him unless you sang a song to him. Most of the time he picked an Elvis song; Elvis was like a religion at my house. Sometimes he would let it slide with a nursery rhyme though._

"_Teddy bear!" He shouted finally, clapping his hands together. Guess he wanted Elvis that night._

"_Okay, but you have to hold still." He nodded solemnly and lay back onto the changing table. I cleared my throat and tried to remember all the words,_

"_**Baby let me be,**_

_**Your lovin' teddy bear,**_

_**Put a chain around my neck,**_

_**And lead me anywhere**_

_**Oh let me be,**_

_**Your teddy bear." **__I sang and Tommy smiled his goofy toothless smile._

"_**I don't wanna be a tiger,**_

_**Cause Tigers play too rough**_

_**I don't wanna be a lion **_

_**Cause lions aint the kind **_

_**You love enough.**_

_**Just wanna be, your teddy bear,**_

_**Put a chain around my neck**_

_**And lead me anywhere,**_

_**Oh let me be," **__Someone pecked me on the cheek and continued on for me,_

"_**Your teddy bear!"**__ I whipped around to face my older brother Andrew. His dark brown hair was greased back and long, like most of the boys in our neighborhood had theirs; but he wasn't a greaser. He was too smart, and too popular to be put in that category even though I was. He was at least two heads taller than me, and had an amazing build for a cashier at the local grocery store. Girls loved him; he was awful handsome._

"_Hey Gracie." He smiled and pushed me to the side to stand over Tommy._

_Andrew loved that boy, I mean obviously he did because they were brothers, but with them it was so much more than that. Tommy was his best friend, and Andrew was Tommy's. They did everything together, and whenever Andrew would leave for work in the morning, Tommy would cry his eyes out until we dangled a chocolate bar in his face. _

_The only thing I think either of them loved more than the other, was chocolate._

"_Hey buddy boy!" Andrew shouted and picked the now fully clothed Tommy off of the table. He put his hands under his armpits, and swung him around in the air like an airplane; Tommy's favorite game._

"_Vwoom!" Tommy screeched and laughed when Andrew pretended to drop him. _

"_Monkey in the middle!" Andrew shouted and threw Tommy into my arms. I caught the tiny little boy, kissed him on the cheek and threw him back to Andrew. We played around like this for a few more minutes until a stark naked Nora sprinted into the room and hid under her crib. She always did that after a bath; she thought it was funny for us to try and find her._

"_Hey Boo-Boo." Andrew laughed and got down on his hands and knees to pull Nora out from under the crib. "What do you think your doing munchkin? Hiding from the boogey man?" Nora giggled and poked Andrews nose._

"_Your silly." She laughed and he tickled her stomach until she looked blue in the face. _

"_Lets get some clothes on you girly." Andrew laughed and set her down on the changing table. _

_I decided we didn't need to hang around and watch Nora fight with him over what clothes to wear; so I pulled Tommy onto my shoulders and walked out into the kitchen to help dad with dinner._

"_So then the guy comes back and threatens to burn me alive if I don't give him the money in the cash register." Andrew explained while shoveling mashed potato's in his mouth. "I told him that there was a cop in the back just waiting for someone stupid enough to rob the store, and the guy left so fast I thought his tires were gonna catch on fire." My dad chuckled and turned the radio up. _

"_Well played son."_

_My mom just pursed her lips and took a tiny bite of chicken. She didn't like anybody lying about anything, even if a lie would save your life, mama didn't approve._

"_Yeah, it's real brave to lie to a drunk." I laughed and Andrew clocked me upside the head._

"_You wouldn't have done anything different smarty." I nodded in agreement._

"_Hey Gracie isn't this your favorite song?" Mama asked, obviously trying to change the subject. I listened for a second and realized she was right. __**All Shook Up**__ by Elvis, man I loved that song._

"_**I'm in love, I'm all shook up."**_

The wailing sound of sirens woke me from my dream painfully. I had forgotten about my shoulder; about the fact that my entire family, save for my one disgustingly traitorous brother was dead. The dream had seemed so real, almost like I was living it again. It had only taken place a few days ago after all.

I could still hear Tommy's sweet little voice full of love for his big sister,

"Airpwane Airpwane!"

_You know I would baby, any time._

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**GAH. This was supposed to let you get to know the family better...how'd it do...R&R**


	4. Weight of Your Words

**Sorry it took so long guys, family schtuff…aw well. **

**Oh, one more thing before the chapter starts…I would seriously seriously appreciate a beta reader, so if anyone's interested let me know!**

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I felt like I was being crushed, whether it was from the painful weight of my memories, or the twisted cage of metal that could hardly be recognized as a car piled on top of me, I wasn't sure. Muffled voices could be heard nearby, and though I was anxious to know who it was, I couldn't concentrate. I was fighting back the urge to scream, to cry out in pain and anguish, something kept me from getting farther than gritting my teeth.

_You're family can't scream or feel…why should you?_ They were dark thoughts I know, but I could feel the life leaving my body with ever shakily drawn breath, and it was all I could do to keep myself from exploding into a million pieces and scattering all over the highway.

My shoulder pounded roughly and painfully. I thought fleetingly that I should be squeezing Elaine's hand, then realized with horror that I was. It was stone cold. Images of her comforting smile and sweet voice passed through my mind, but were overshadowed by red splashes of blood, and cold blue hands.

_Oh God no, she can't be dead. Not anyone else please! It's not my fault stop punishing me! I can't control him! It's not my fault, I was only trying to help, he's my brother…please stop!_ I could feel guilty tears pooling in my eyes at that point, but they couldn't fall no matter how hard I tried to make them. The road was blocking their way. For the first time, I realized that my face and upper body were pressed up against the highway, the street, the place where cars drove.

That was the first time in my life I think I've ever been mortally terrified of anything. Even watching my family being shot and running for my life with my two lifeless siblings in my arms paled in comparison to the fear I was feeling just then. I was literally having the life squeezed out of me by a kind couple's car, bleeding from a gunshot wound.

My parents were dead. My beloved brothers Andrew and Tommy, and little sister Nora were dead, and though I wanted nothing more than to see them again, I didn't want to die. I really didn't want to die; so I fought. I fought with everything my broken body could handle, and just when I thought it was futile, that I was using up needed energy for nothing, the weight was lifted. The car, or what remained of it, was being lifted off of me by some unseen force.

I could hear terrified shouts coming from a man beside me as he pressed two fingers to my neck.

"Honey can you hear me?" My eyes fluttered open painfully, and I glanced towards him. I didn't have to see the look in his eye to know that my condition was bad. I didn't have to see my own reflection in his glasses to know that I was dying.

I opened my mouth to answer him, but was unable to speak, my throat seemed to be balled up, and tightened past recognition, but it wasn't injury stopping me.

_You're family can't talk. You're family's already dead, and it's your fault. You killed them._

With one last difficult inhale, my body shuddered, and I was left in the care of strangers once again. My only hope was that I had paid my debt to God, and they wouldn't have to die as well.

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**Sorry it was so short kids, but like I said, family schtuff. Chapter five will come MUCH faster I promise, and since I'm pretty much done with it already, it wont be much longer...R&R please, they make me smile.**


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